Monday, 5 March 2012

"I'm not doing that."

Ideally, the proper attitude of a Christian Reactionary when confronted by any of the proliferating laws and regulations that attack the Good, would be the resolution "I'm not doing that".

This is the ultimate Christian 'politics'.

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To spring into what people think is 'action' by raising awareness, creating petitions, funding pressure groups and lobbying political parties, by using the courts... well, this is organization, this is politics as usual - and the fact is we have lost that game and continue to lose it, and faith in that game is killing us.

If there was any powerful, active mobilizable constituency, then matters would not be as they are.

We cannot work together because there is not together to work with - not in political terms.

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For a devout Christian, the baseline response is to do or not do what you should or should not.

And that's it.

Consequences may or may not follow, may or may not be predictable, but that ought to be irrelevant.

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We don't know how the world works.

We never can.

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(If it is helpful, think of the Good being propagated in terms of Sheldrake's morphic fields acting across space and time, or Charles Williams co-inherence of all humans in the work of salvation - we save others by Love, they save us by Love, in a vast and intricate web. Humans are necessarily joined - we do not need politics or organization to affect one another. We just do affect one another: end of story.)

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A choice of Good by a single and apparently isolated person will have influence because nobody is alone and nothing is disregarded.

5 comments:

"Humans are necessarily joined - we do not need politics or organization to affect one another. We just do affect one another: end of story. A choice of Good by a single and apparently isolated person will have influence because nobody is alone and nothing is disregarded."

@Kristor - thank you. This is important because while plenty of Christians would be prepared to make a stand if backed-up by others, that back-up may not be available; so if they make a stand they will be on-their-own, and to all *appearances* what they do will be misrepresented and distorted and futile/ counter-productive.

i.e. From a conventional cause-and-effect logic; what they have done 'made no difference'.

But what happens at the deeper level of the underlying and unseen reality may be very different - at that level their action may be very significant indeed.

But whether significant or not, their action will make a difference - for good or ill.

For instance, even minimal delay and resistance before capitulating to evil coercion makes it that much easier/ more likely that others will resist evil at least for a while and minimally before capitulating; rather than capitulating instantly and with zero resistance.

And so on. The more Good choices you make and the better you become - the greater will be the beneficial effect on others.

"Every day and whenever you can, repeat within yourself: "Lord, have mercy upon all who come before You today.' For every hour and every moment thousands of people leave their life on this earth, and their souls come before the Lord -- and so many of them part with the earth in isolation, unknown to anyone, in sadness and sorrow that no one will mourn for them, or even know whether they had lived or not. And so, perhaps from the other end of the earth, your prayer for his repose will rise up to the Lord, though you did not know him at all, nor he you. How moving it is for his soul, coming in fear before the Lord, to feel at that moment that someone is praying for him, too, that there is still a human being on earth who loves him. And God, too, will look upon you both with more mercy, for if even you so pitied him, how much more will He Who is infinitely more merciful and loving than you are. And He will forgive him for your sake."